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Thursday, January 17, 2013

A day in the life of a historical romance novelist

Becoming a recognized romance writer has been such a whirlwind
experience for me that I still can’t quite believe it is happening. How
great is it to be able to do what you love day in and day out, not just
as a hobby, but because people actually have a genuine interest in your
work?

Having only recently begun to share the details of my
writing career with people, I’ve been met with an astounding amount of
support and congratulations, usually followed by tons of questions about
the genre and my plots in particular. I think a lot of people are under
the assumption that my days must be truly extraordinary to inspire such
stories. Well … occasionally, but most days are not.

My life
revolves around my family – my wonderful husband and incredible boys
whom I love with all my heart and soul. The stories I write are mostly
fiction, meant to entertain and explore human behavior – our flaws, our
fears and our desires. They are the product of many hours of hard work –
work that can only be done by patiently placing your butt in a seat and
staying there until your ideas for the day have finished pouring from
your head onto the paper (or onto the shiny pixels of your word
processor, to be more precise :o) )

So here’s a play by play of a
day of my life…not as exciting as the stories I write perhaps, but
perfect in every way that matters.

7:00 am – I awake, just in
time to get the kids ready for school – we have 1 ½ hour to get dressed,
pack their lunch and have breakfast together before getting out the
door.

9:00 am – Drop the kids off at school and do a quick bit of grocery shopping on the way home.

10:00
am – Having poured myself a hot cup of tea, I start going over my
e-mails, checking my social network pages and responding as best I can
to my friends and fans If it happens to be Friday, I post my weekly
romance recommendation…wink wink (shameless bit of self promoting :o) ).

10:30
am – I turn to my manuscript and cringe, wondering how the heck I’m
going to manage getting my work done before picking up the kids again. I
have a general plan, but usually let the characters lead the way. After
staring at the screen for a few minutes, hoping for an epiphany to get
me started, I just begin writing … something…anything… to get things
going… and then suddenly the story comes back to life and I can’t seem
to stop again.

1:00 pm – Break for lunch – something quick that I can eat while I check my e-mails, answer a few tweets and FB messages .

1:30 pm – Write, write, write.

3:15 pm – Jump in the car to go pick up the kids.

4:00 pm – Afternoon tea with my husband and the kids. Once that’s over and the kids run off to play, I start writing again.

5:00
pm – Prepare dinner – anything from steak and vegetables, to pasta, to
grilled chicken…whatever it is it usually takes me under 1 hour.

6:00
pm – Everyone flocks together at the table for dinner, but since the
kids are usually done in under 10 minutes, my husband and I have a few
quiet moments to ourselves…bliss. Unless of course the kids need either
one of us to help them load a new computer game, or get to the next
level of yesterday’s game. :o)

6:30 pm - I have just a bit more
time to write before getting the kids ready for bed at 7:00 pm. Ideas
are always popping into my head…all I need is a little more time to…oh
well, it’s 7:00 pm =)

My
kids are normally asleep around 8:30 pm, after which my husband and I
usually manage a little more quality time either talking or sharing a
couple of hours in front of the TV. We follow a lot of series and have a
DVR so there’s always something good on (Big Bang Theory, Revenge,
House, Dr. Who, Supernatural, Whitney…to name only a few). If I have a
deadline, I drop the shows and write some more at this point, but right
now I’m just moving forward at my own pace, so all I need is to fill my
self-imposed daily quota – roughly four - five hours of constant writing
required.

Finally, I cozy up in bed with the latest book I
happen to be reading, until I eventually dose off around midnight –
lights out by 12:30 if I’m not asleep, so I’m not a complete zombie the
next day.

Less exciting than you imagined perhaps, but peppered
with the simple pleasures that life has to offer, a bit of time with my
loving family and doing what I love. Not sure I’d change any of it for
all the adventures in the world. ;o)